Odd Olsen Skadengaard

We can be reasonably sure of Anders ROE's paternal line going back six generations from the Roe (Raae, Raa, Rå) and Kyrkjebø farm family histories. His earliest ancestor that we have documented was probably named Odd Olsen Skadengaard.

In the Hemsedals Slektshistorie: 1693-1975 (1976: 272) under Kyrkjebøn 68-1, authors Han Flaten and Ola Rudvin wrote, "Det fyrste ekteparet på Skadengaard som kyrkjeboka nemner, er Odd og Kirsti." [Translation: "The first couple at Skadengaard which church records mention, is Odd and Kirsti."] Their children were: Ole (b. 1708), Embrik, (b. 1711), Halvor (b. c. 1714), Margit (b. c. 1717),  and Sigrid (b. c. 1719).

We can guess that Odd's father's name was probably Ole since that was what he named his oldest son. In his article describing Norwegian naming practices, author John Føllesdal wrote:

. . . the oldest son was named after his paternal grandfather, and the second son after his maternal grandfather. Likewise, the oldest daughter was named after her paternal grandmother, and the second daughter after her maternal grandmother. When the names of the paternal and maternal grandparents had been used up, the great grandparents names were used, but in no particular order.

Until I find time for more translation, we're left with the mystery of the actual connection between Skadengaard and Kyrkjebø or why and when Odd and his family moved to the latter farm. But we do know that his oldest son, Ole, received the Kyrkjebø farm (Førsund, 237), and that according to both of the Rå farm histories, (Laberg 1938) and (Espe 1990), around 1744-45, Odd and Kirsti's son, Halvor Oddsen Kyrkjebø, came to Lærdal and married the widow of the owner of the Rå farm, Ingeborg Larsdtr.


Odd Olsen Skadengaard Descendants Chart. Image courtesy of Mark D. Williams.